The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

by Robert Iger

The succession process was the first time in my career that I had to face that level of anxiety head on. It was impossible to completely filter out the chatter about me or to not be hurt by very public conversations about how ill-suited I was for the job. But I learned, through strong self-discipline and love from my family, that I had to recognize it for what it was—that it had no bearing on who I was—and put it in its proper place. I could control what I did and how I comported myself. Everything else was beyond my control. I didn’t maintain that perspective every moment, but to the extent that I was able to, it kept the anxiety from having too strong a hold.

Reflexión- we ought to focus only on that which we can control. same lesson from most personal growth books. Nuestra actitud, nuestras reacciones, nuestras acciones. Iger también a pasado momentos en donde se le olvidó esto. no pienso que se trate sobre no caer, es sobre practicar y habituar nuestras mentes a recordarnos esto constantemente. A recordarnos que las emociones aflictivas que podamos tener son pasajeras y dependientes de causas(ie pensamientos) mal dirigdos que dan lugar a eso. pero, tambien, debo recordar que somos seres sociales. Esta bien y necesario trabajar en mi mente y habituarla, pero tambien puedo (debo?) incorporar una red de apoyo externa, que si bien no le imponga la responsabilidad y carga de mi bienestar, me alimente y me recuerde estas lecciones que son valiosas para mi.

but he also showed a vulnerable side I’d never seen before. Being alienated from the company was painful for him, and the ongoing fight seemed to have worn him out. He’d aged considerably in the two years since he’d left the board, and he struck me as needy and frail in a way he hadn’t in the past. I wondered if all of this wasn’t a part of some larger psychic struggle. The truth was, it wasn’t just Michael who was at odds with Roy; besides Stanley, not enough people within Disney had given him the respect he felt he deserved, including his long-gone uncle, Walt. I had never had any real connection to Roy, but I detected vulnerability in him now. There was nothing to be gained by making him feel smaller or insulted. He was just someone looking for respect, and getting it had never been especially easy for him. It was so personal, and involved so much pride and ego, and this battle of his had been going on for decades. Once I saw Roy in that light, I began to think that maybe there was a way to appease him and put this fight to rest.

In negotiations and business, find other's vulnerabilities. Que desea y a que le huye? Como puedo ayudarle en eso, de una manera en que ayude a los deseos o no deseos de mi compañia? pero, mas importante, let them talk. Dale cuerda y escucha. (mismo concepto de criss voss)

Just like that, a crisis that threatened to loom over my early days as CEO was resolved. Making peace with Roy and Stanley would be viewed by some parties as a kind of capitulation, but I knew the truth, and that was far more valuable than perception.

En sus primeros dias de CEO, su oden de prioridades parece haber sido construido en base a "pain points". fixing su relacion con roy disney era importante por q era una gran distraccion que causaba inestabilidad para el (emocional, headspace, la percepcion de publico hacia el-importante en una public company) y la compañia

Don’t let your ego get in the way of making the best possible decision. I was stung when Roy and Stanley sued the board for choosing me as CEO, and I certainly could have gone to battle with them and prevailed, but it all would have come at a huge cost to the company and been a giant distraction from what really mattered. My job was to set our company on a new path, and the first step was to defuse this unnecessary struggle. The easiest and most productive way to do that was to recognize that what Roy needed, ultimately, was to feel respected. That was precious to him, and it cost me and the company so little.

Aqui confirma mis pensamientos anteriores. Pero cuales preguntas será q se hizo? Maybe, en orden: to which direction do i want the company headed? what things are stopping or deterring us from that path(roy lawsuit )? How do we solve that (negotiate so they drop the lawsuit)? What would help us in that path (regain partnership con pixar y steve jobs)? check my answers+Are these answers my ego or truly directing the company? How do i know im right?

“This can’t be about the past. There’s nothing we can do about bad creative decisions that were made and disappointing films that were released. But there’s a lot we can do to change the future, and we need to start now.”

Establish Priorities /direction &keep reminding people over and over again. Including The board

“A few solid pros are more powerful than dozens of cons,” Steve said. “So what should we do next?” Another lesson: Steve was great at weighing all sides of an issue and not allowing negatives to drown out positives, particularly for things he wanted to accomplish. It was a powerful quality of his.

About his discussion with Steve Jobs regarding pixar. Jobs hizo un ejercicio simple de pros y cons de la idea de Disney comprar a Pixar. Importante, que no fue sobre cantidad. Tenian mas cons, pero los pros pesaban mas aunque fueran menos

The movie business can be both thrilling and maddening. It doesn’t operate like other traditional businesses. It requires making bet after bet based on nothing but instinct. Everything is a risk. You can have what you think is a great idea and the right team assembled, and things can still get derailed for a whole host of reasons that are often beyond your control. A script doesn’t come together, a director has bad chemistry with his or her team or has a vision for a film that runs contrary to yours, a competitive movie comes out that upends your expectations. It’s easy to get swept up in the glamour of Hollywood and lose all perspective; and it’s equally easy to feel contempt for it and lose all perspective. I’ve seen both occur many times.

Bobs take on the film industry

Putting pressure on movie executives, particularly creative producers, to make better films for less money isn’t necessarily a terrible approach. Any studio has to be aware of the economic realities of the business: production costs do sometimes get out of hand; hard lines do sometimes have to be drawn when it comes to negotiating contracts; there’s an endless litany of financial decisions that have to be attended to in order to guard against losing money on a film. It’s a fine line, though, and I’ve often observed how the business side can sometimes put too many demands on the creative process, and be too indifferent to the pressures that the filmmakers are under, and that strain ends up doing more harm than good.

Balance Entre financials y creativida en film

After a couple of years we had too few films in the pipeline. Various powerful partners, inside and outside Disney, had lost faith in Rich and were openly complaining about doing business with him. (Ike was one of Rich’s most vocal detractors.) As I looked at the studio, very little was going right, and it was clear that my instinct wasn’t going to work out. Rather than putting more effort into making it work, or becoming defensive about having done it, I needed to contain the damage, learn from my missteps, and move on, quickly.

Parece q Bob balancea su instinto, data, numeros que le digan como esta un business, y escuchar y analizar las opniones de los demas. Y creo q lo hace en ese orden

Bob Daly, who was then co-chair of Warner Bros., called me and said I should talk to Alan Horn about serving as an adviser to Rich.

He listened to advice

Alan wanted to prove he had another chapter in him, but he was also wary of trying something and having it go awry and adding one more sour note to the end of his career. The last thing he needed, he said, was to go to another place and have it not work out. “I can’t afford another mistake, either,” I told him. Over the next several months, Alan and I discussed the possibility of his becoming our new studio head. One of the questions was what my involvement in his business would be. I told him that no one at the company could approve huge projects without me. “The head of Parks and Resorts can’t build a two-hundred-million-dollar ride without my approval,” I said. “The same goes for movies.” Though things had ended badly at Warner Bros., Alan was used to having more or less complete autonomy. Even if he wanted to be involved in the movie business, Jeff Bewkes was three thousand miles away in New York. “I’m thirty feet away,” I told Alan. “And I care about this, a lot. You need to know before you make a decision that I’ll definitely be involved in your business. Ninety-nine percent of the time you’ll be able to make what you want to make, but I can’t give you total freedom.”

Bob Vio la vulnerabidad de Alan (tenia aversion a fallar otra vez). lo unio con sus propios dseos. Y leveraged eso. Le hizo saber a alan q el tenia q aprobar muchas cosas. Eso psicologicamente le dio seguridad a Alan-En su mente sabria q el chance de cometer errores era menor por q bob lo chekearia

Surround yourself with people who are good in addition to being good at what they do.

People matter in business